Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Ben Webster - The Warm Moods

The veteran tenor Ben Webster had a very warm tone on ballads that contrasted with the aggressive biting sound he used on faster material. For this 1960 set Webster is joined by a string quartet (arranged by Johnny Richards) and a rhythm section for his melodic interpretations of a dozen standards. Even when simply stating the melody, Webster brings out unexpected beauty in the songs. His tone has never been accurately duplicated and is the main reason to pick up this CD reissue. - by Scott Yanow, AMG

4 comments:

A dream of an album. Strings were made for Ben, who sings with all his heart –and that means something! Don't expect to be submerged by sugary emptiness: arrangements of Johnny Richards for a string quartet are pure delight & taste. One of the most beautiful websterian albums. Just music of the highest caliber, period. Many thks again, itr.